The Brown Sisters

"(...) the sense that 12 months is just a mathematical marker, and that it is life, rather than time, that makes us all age to different degrees." (via)

In August 1974, US-American photographer Nicholas Nixon started taking photographs of his wife Bebe and her three sisters. What started "out of boredom" became the project "The Brown Sisters" (via). After the second picture, the sisters agreed to gather for a portrait annually and Nixon photographed them every year over a period of 40 years. On each picture, the expressions of the sisters vary (via).


Above: 1975

Always in the same order. Left to right: Heather, Mimi, Bebe, Laurie
When Nixon took his first photograph, Mimi was 15, Laurie 21, Heather 23, and Bebe 25.


Above: 1976


Above: 1977

“We are all aware of time passing and us not being aware of it while it’s passing, So seeing the sisters, for a lot of people, gives them a reliable marker that a year has passed.”
Nicholas Nixon


Above: 1980


Above: 1981

"Throughout this series, we watch these women age, undergoing life’s most humbling experience. While many of us can, when pressed, name things we are grateful to Time for bestowing upon us, the lines bracketing our mouths and the loosening of our skin are not among them. So while a part of the spirit sinks at the slow appearance of these women’s jowls, another part is lifted: They are not undone by it. We detect more sorrow, perhaps, in the eyes, more weight in the once-fresh brows. But the more we study the images, the more we see that aging does not define these women. Even as the images tell us, in no uncertain terms, that this is what it looks like to grow old, this is the irrefutable truth, we also learn: This is what endurance looks like." (via)


Above: 1982


Above: 1985


Above: 1992


Above: 1999


Above: 2007


Above: 2012

"When 36 prints were exhibited in a gallery in Granada, Spain, viewers openly wept." (via)


Above: 2014

::: For the complete collection see The New York Times

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
- photographs via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via
- more on the project: review

The Flower of the South

Philip J. Cozans' children novel "Little Eva. Flower of the South" was published in 1853 as a reaction to Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" published on 20 March 1852. In its first year, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" sold around 300.000 copies. Not all reactions were positive. Pro-slavery authors were so enraged that they started writing their own novels with inverse messages. In their "Anti-Tom novels" (or "plantation literature") they described slaves as "the happy, singing, childlike stereotypes" and "a South in which slaves and masters enjoy a mutually supportive, familial bond that is only severed by the ignorant or greedy machinations of abolitionists."  "Little Eva" is plantation literature that addresses children; most of the Anti-Tom literature was written for adults (via and via).



The pro-slavery novel tells the story of Sam, the slave, who does not need freedom and prefers living on the plantation where he is much happier.



Little Eva lived in the bright sunny South, in the State of Alabama. She was the only daughter of a wealthy planter who owned many slaves, and a large plantation. Eva was the joy and pride of her parents, she obeyed them in everything ; she had a smile or a kind word for all; she is ealled the Flower of the South.
Here you see is little Eva teaching the little colored boys and girls the alphabet. See how pleased they are, for they all love Eva, and would do anything to please her ; and Eva takes a great deal of pleasure in teaching them and making them happy. She is teaching them the letters one by one, which she marks on the black-board.



Eva does not forget her friends, for she calls on her old nurse every day, to give her comfort and bring her all the news that is gomg about, for her nurse is very cold and sick. Eva has just brought her some chicken broth; the nurse is always glad to see Eva, and she loves to talk of the time when Eva was a dear little baby.
It is Sabbath morning, and Eva as usual, is reading the Bible to the colored people; she has learned some of them to read, but they would rather hear Eva read than read themselves, for they say her voice is so sweet ; and she always explains all the questions they ask her so pleasantly, that it is a greater pleasure to hear her.



Eva rises early like all good children. Sometimes, when the weather is clear and beautiful, she takes a walk, and gathers a pretty bunch of flowers for her dear mother, who is very fond of them. Eva is riding a pony this morning, she is not afraid of him, for he is a very kind and gentle animal, he sometimes follows her like a dog.
Eva has fallen into the water. See how the poor dog is swimming to save her, but he is too late, for Sam is taking her safely out. Poor Eva, she was reaching to catch hold of some grass which grew in the water, when she lost her balance and fell; but she is safe now. She will remember not to play again near the water.



This is Eva's birth-day. She is just nine years old ; there is double rejoicing, both because Eva was saved from drowning, and because it is her birth-day. See, she is presenting Sam with a beautiful Bible, as a token of her esteem. Eva's parents were so pleased with Sam for saving Eva, that they gave him his freedom; but he never left them, he loved them all too well.



Book via Open Library

Inducing Anger, Increasing Ethnic Bias

Emotions carry information about our environment and therefore influence information processing. Happy moods, for instance, tell us that the situation is not threatening and - concerning information processing - that relying on general-knowledge-structures is sufficient (e.g. heuristic cues, stereotypes). Sad moods, however, tell us that there is a problem and - concerning information processing - that we need to use more systematic information processing in order to understand the problem. Applying these mechanisms to intergroup attitudes shows that the processes do not seem to be universal and that induced emotions only affect intergroup attitudes if they are relevant to stereotypes. According to research findings, generally, both disgust and anger increase intergroup bias. But, for instance, only disgust increases anti-homosexuality bias and only anger increases bias against Arabs. In other words, induced emotions only have an effect when the "informational value of the emotion" fits the stereotype.



Intergroup processes need to be differentiated. For instance, intergroup processes for gender groups differ from those for ethnic groups. So does the effect of anger. The authors of the study presented here predict that induced anger will increase ethnic but not gender intergroup bias since anger is associated with conflicts for resources, and "ethnic groups typically compete for resources, whereas gender groups typically engage in relations of positive interdependence". In addition, they predict that "this increased ethnic intergroup bias should only be observed among men because men show more groupbased reactions to intergroup conflict than women do."



First, intergroup attitudes were measured (one ethnic, one gender for men, one gender for women). Then, participants were randomly assigned to the anger condition (writing about anger life events) or the control condition (writing about a normal day in life).
The results of the study support the prediction that anger induction increases ethnic but not gender intergroup bias and only for men. These results highlight that gender groups differ on a crucial point from ethnic groups and "call for more attention to the effect of people’s gender in intergroup relations research."



- Kuppens, T., Pollet, T. V., Teixeira, C. P., Demoulin, S., Roberts, S. C. & Little, A. C. (2012) Emotions in context: Anger causes ethnic bias but not gender bias in men but not women. European Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 432-441
- all photographs by Willy Rizzo (1966), of Jane Fonda via and of Géorgia Quental via and of Virna Lisi via

This (slightly modified) posting was originally published on Science on Google+ on 10th of October 2013

Narrative images: World Press Photo of the Year 1957

In 1957, Douglas Martin's photograph of Dorothy Counts became World Press Photo of the Year, "the most prestigious and coveted award in photojournalism" (via).



On 4th of September 1957, Dorothy Counts walked to Harry Harding High School, in Charlotte, North Carolina (via). She was one of four black US-American children to be admitted to integrated schools in Charlotte (via) and the first black US-American to attend the all-white school Harding High (via). When she arrived, the street was blocked and she walked more than two blocks to the entrance, surrounded by students and adults harrassing her with racial slurs, throwing trash at her (via), taunting, insulting and spitting on her (via). John Z. Warlick, leader of the white supremacist organisation White Citizens Council which was mainly founded to oppose ethnic integration through severe intimidation tactics, had urged boys to keep her out and girls to spit on her. This was her first day at school. She was only fifteen and "stood tall, her five-foot-ten-inch frame towering nobly above the mob that trailed her" (via). At school, the harrassment continued, her family received threatening phone calls, a car was smashed ... Finally, her father decided to withdraw her after only four days (via).

"It is with compassion for our native land and love for our daughter Dorothy that we withdraw her as a student at Harding High School. As long as we felt she could be protected from bodily injury and insults within the school’s walls and upon the school premises, we were willing to grant her desire to study at Harding." (via)

In 2008, Harding University awarded her an honorary diploma. Two years later it renamed its media centre in honour of Dorothy Counts (via). The same year, she received a public apology from Woody Cooper who had been part of the crowd in 1957 (via). 53 years after her first school day, Dorothy and Woody met in the "Garden of Forgiveness" on the "Red Bench of Love".
By the way, today, Harding High School is predominantly black (via).





photographs via and via and via and by Don Sturkey via and via and via and via and via and via, colour photographs via and via

Aput, Qana, Piqsirpoq, Qimuqsuq: Inuit Snow Terms

Hawaiians having 65 words for describing fishing nets, 108 for sweet potatoes, 42 for sugarcane, 47 for bananas, Baniwa having 29 words for ants, Scots having a plethora of words for bad weather, Somali for camels, Greeks for face slapping, and Inuit for snow (via) are examples that are to illustrate the meaning of "cultural vocabularies". The example of Inuit languages having a great many words for "snow" is one that is rather familiar to the general public and has reached the status of "a commonplace of linguistics and anthropology". It is probably the most often used example to illustrate to what extent vocabulary and cultural or physical environment are linked to each other. This popular story "has entered the realm of popular mythology, having turned into a scholarly equivalent of the urban legend about the poodle in the microwave: everyone is familiar with the sotry but the exact details are a little sketchy."



The example was firstly mentioned by German-American anthropologist Franz Boas in 1911. Since then it has bee repeated, mutated and transformed a great many times without reference to the primary sources of information. In 1940, linguist Benjamin Whorf brought up "the Inuit example" and has since then been closely associated with it. In the 1950s, anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher Edward T. Hall mentioned the example again. These researchers and others not mentioned here quoted "the Inuit example" in different ways ranging from Inuit having "three" to "five" or just "many" words for snow. Inuit is not a single language and due to the polysythetic morphology of Inuit languages the number of words is infinite. In addition, the question arises what exactly a word is.



In 1991, Geoffrey Pullum published "The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax" and "the Inuit example" no longer escaped scrutiny. In an entertaining manner, he poked "fun at the scholars who have slavishly repeated the claim promulgated by other scholars with no reference to primary data". He calls the example a hoax and says that Inuit do not have many different words for snow: "Anyone who insists on simply checking their primary sources will find that they are quite unable to document the alleged facts about snow vocabulary (but nobody ever checks, because the truth might not be what the reading public wants to hear.)" Pullum consulted a specialist and was told that there were between one to two dozen words for snow, depending on the criteria which to include (e.g. many refer to "ice") (Kaplan, 2013).

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- Kaplan, L. (2003). Inuit Snow Terms: How Many and What Does It Mean? In: Building Capacity in Arctic Societies: Dynamics and shifting perspectives. Proceedings from the 2nd IPSSAS Seminar. Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada: May 26-June 6, 2003, ed. by François Trudel. Montreal: CIÉRA -- Faculté des sciences sociales Université Laval. via
- The Project Gutenberg e-Book of "The Central Eskimo" by Franz Boas via
- images via, clip Happy Holidays from Exit10 (Vimeo)

This Girl Can

"This Girl Can is a national campaign developed by Sport England and a wide range of partnership organisations. It's a celebration of active women up and down the country who are doing their thing no matter how well they do it, how they look or even how red their face gets." (via) The campaign is a reaction to Sport England's research according to which there is a clear gender disparity in the UK with two million fewer women playing sport (via).



“In This Girl Can we want to tell the real story of women who exercise and play sport. They come in all shapes and sizes and all levels of ability. They have a myriad of reasons for doing what they do. If you are wondering if you should join them – or carry on – this campaign says it really doesn’t matter if you are a bit rubbish or completely brilliant, the main thing is that you are a woman and you are doing something, and that deserves to be celebrated.” The campaign uses taglines such as "Sweating like a pig.", "I swim because I love my body. Not because I hate it." or "Feeling like a fox."  (via)



"Before we began this campaign, we looked very carefully at what women were saying about why they felt sport and exercise was not for them. Some of the issues, like time and cost, were familiar, but one of the strongest themes was a fear of judgement. Worries about being judged for being the wrong size, not fit enough and not skilled enough came up time and again."



More clips (many of them have been removed in the meantime, sorry):
::: Julie vs Inhibitions (Julie, 33, nurse, Manchester): watch ... + ... behind the scenes
::: Kelly vs "Mummy!" (Kelly, 31, mother, Bury): watch ... + ... behind the scenes
::: Grace vs Pace (Grace, 22, student, London): watch ... + ... behind the scenes
::: Victoria vs Sweat (Victoria, 29, nurse, London): watch ... + ... behind the scenes

"This Girl Can is here to inspire women to wiggle, jiggle, move and prove that judgement is a barrier that can be overcome." (via)

images via

Martin Luther King Day

"We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now."
Martin Luther King, Jr.



Martin Luther King Day celebrates a person who "brought hope and healing" and commemorates his "values of courage, truth, justice, compassion, dignity, humility and service" (via). It is a floating federal holiday in the US and is observed on the third Monday in January which is around Martin Luther King's birthday, i.e. 15th of January. The idea was promoted after King's assassination in 1968, signed into law in 1983 by Ronald Reagan and observed for the first time in 1986. The petition to establish the holiday was signed by six million people, Stevie Wonder's "Happy Birthday" (1981) was dedicated to King and aimed at supporting the campaign. At the beginning, some states were reluctant to observe the holiday and it was only in 2000, that all 50 states offically observed Martin Luther King Day with South Carolina being the last one. Outside the US, Martin Luther King Day is not really known. The day, however, is officially recognised in Toronto and in Hiroshima. Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba holds a special banquet at his office "as an act of unifying his city's call for peace with King's message of human rights." (via).

"It is a day of interracial and intercultural cooperation and sharing. No other day of the year brings so many peoples from different cultural backgrounds together in such a vibrant spirit of brother and sisterhood. Whether you are African-American, Hispanic or Native American, whether you are Caucasian or Asian-American, you are part of the great dream Martin Luther King, Jr. had for America. This is not a black holiday; it is a peoples’ holiday. And it is the young people of all races and religions who hold the keys to the fulfillment of his dream."
The King Center

Description of photograph: In this photograph, Coretta is upset with her husband, who had been attacked the night before by a disturbed white racist but had not defended himself. Though the police urged King to press charges, he refused. "The system we live under creates people such as this youth," he said. "I'm not interested in pressing charges. I'm interested in changing the kind of system that produces such men." (literally via)


Description of photograph: King said in an interview that this photograph was taken as he tried to explain to his daughter Yolanda why she could not go to Funtown, a whites-only amusement park in Atlanta. King claims to have been tongue-tied when speaking to her. "One of the most painful experiences I have ever faced was to see her tears when I told her Funtown was closed to colored children, for I realized the first dark cloud of inferiority had floated into her little mental sky." (literally via)

"Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them."  
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Proclamation 5431 -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 1986
January 18, 1986
By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

This year marks the first observance of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a national holiday. It is a time for rejoicing and reflecting. We rejoice because, in his short life, Dr. King, by his preaching, his example, and his leadership, helped to move us closer to the ideals on which America was founded. We reflect on his words and his works. Dr. King's was truly a prophetic voice that reached out over the chasms of hostility, prejudice, ignorance, and fear to touch the conscience of America. He challenged us to make real the promise of America as a land of freedom, equality, opportunity, and brotherhood.
Although Dr. King was an uncompromising champion of nonviolence, he was often the victim of violence. And, as we know, a shameful act of violence cut short his life before he had reached his fortieth birthday.
His story is well-known. As a 26-year-old minister of the Gospel, Dr. King led a protest boycott of a bus company that segregated blacks, treating them as second-class citizens. At the very outset he admonished all those who would join in the protest that ``our actions must be guided by the deepest principles of our Christian faith. Love must be our regulating ideal.'' Otherwise, he warned, ``our protest will end up as a meaningless drama on the stage of history . . . shrouded with ugly garments of shame.'' Dr. King's unshakable faith inspired others to resist the temptation to hate and fear. His protest became a triumph of courage and love.
Almost 30 years ago, on January 30, 1956, Dr. King stood amid the broken glass and splinters of his bombed-out front porch and calmed an angry crowd clamoring for vengeance. ``We cannot solve this problem through retaliatory violence,'' he told them. Dr. King steadfastly opposed both the timid and those who counselled violence. To the former, he preached that ``true peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.'' To the latter, he said that ``in the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.''
Dr. King's activism was rooted in the true patriotism that cherishes America's ideals and strives to narrow the gap between those ideals and reality. He took his stand, he once explained, ``because of my love for America and the sublime principles of liberty and equality on which she is founded.'' He wanted ``to transform the jangling discords of our Nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.''
The majesty of his message, the dignity of his bearing, and the righteousness of his cause are a lasting legacy. In a few short years he changed America for all time. He made it possible for our Nation to move closer to the ideals set forth in our Declaration of Independence: that all people are created equal and are endowed with inalienable rights that government has the duty to respect and protect.
Twenty-three years ago, Dr. King spoke to a quarter of a million Americans gathered near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington -- and to tens of millions more watching on television. There he held up his dream for America like a bright banner:
``I have a dream,'' he said, ``that my four little children will one day live in a Nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. . . . This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, `My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.'''
Let all Americans continue to carry forward the banner that 18 years ago fell from Dr. King's hands. Today, all over America, libraries, hospitals, parks, and thoroughfares proudly bear his name. His likeness appears on more than 100 postage stamps issued by dozens of nations around the globe. Today we honor him with speeches and monuments. But let us do more. Let all Americans of every race and creed and color work together to build in this blessed land a shining city of brotherhood, justice, and harmony. This is the monument Dr. King would have wanted most of all.
By Public Law 98 - 144, the third Monday in January of each year has been designated as a public holiday in honor of the ``Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.''
Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Monday, January 20, 1986, as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this eighteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and tenth.

Ronald Reagan (via)


Description of photograph: Martin Luther King Jr. feeds his infant daughter Bernice at Sunday dinner Nov 8, 1964 in Atlanta, Ga. (literally via)

"Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

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photograph by James Karales via, photographs via and via and via and via and by Flip Schulke/Corbis via